Authority of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason in Anglican Theology

         There are few clear, concise descriptions of what is meant by scripture, tradition, and reason, much less how they are related in Anglican theology.

         Richard Hooker was the first Anglican theologian following the English reformation to offer an account or apology for the English Church. In his work, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, he argued against the Puritans and Roman Catholics. He claimed that Puritans claimed too much in proposing that scripture provided the only source of knowledge, including knowledge about all matters of church order and discipline. In turn, he claimed that the Roman Catholic Church claimed too much in believing that the Church had infallible understanding of faith (as given by the Pope), much less the order and discipline of the church. Instead, Hooker maintain, scripture contains all things necessary to salvation. We know this as we come into relationship with God through scripture and worship. In other words, scripture speaks to us the truths of faith as we have come to experience those truths in our lives. There is a mutual, inward hold that scripture makes upon us and we upon it. The Christian life is then lived out in light of this faith, shaped by the order of Church and society as that reflects the continuing, developing understanding of both.

         Hooker himself does not use the phrase scripture, tradition, and reason. In fact, it is not clear who first used the phrase itself. They have, though, come to designate the sources that mediate Christian faith, inform the understanding of that faith, and shape the order and discipline of the church. They also have come to designate a method in which the understanding of Christian (as distinct from what is necessary to salvation) is understood to always be informed and shaped by these three sources.

         Finally, it should be added, that reason for Richard Hooker and the early Anglican tradition is misunderstood when understood as theoretical reasoning. Reason was understood in a classical sense, drawing from Plato and Aristotle, as a participatory knowledge. To know something was to experience it, to share or participate in something. Hence, scripture and reason inform each other. Again, there is a mutual, inward hold that scripture makes upon us and we upon it. As such, reason may be best understood as a practical wisdom. It is in this sense that scripture, tradition, and reason inform each other.